Video on first oceanic multihulls in Europe, thanks to Sailing news : including an important event for such development in France, when in december 1966 Derek Kelsall invited Eric Tabarly for a sail on board his Toria design, very modern light 42' Trimaran for those days, built in sandwich fiber glass, unfortunately caught by fire during the 1976 solo Atlantic race :
Toria launch from 1:22
Eric on board Toria from 3:10
Eric so built Pen Duick IV for the 1968 Ostar, from 6:31
+ some funny sequences on these pioneering years :

So Sad that a classic has been regurgitated with so many changes that it is now unrecognisable.
Sadly the name wasn't changed.
I prefer to remember the real Bagatelle.

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I guess the problem with the classic racer's is that they probably aren't competitive anymore? So rather than let them rot, turn them into fast cruisers sounds good to me. I'd love to cruise on Bags or Bullfrog, but will always remember them in their original racing configurations aswell.

Speaking to Lindsay and Val Cuming they reckoned that Bagatelle was much improved in a practical sense with the bridgedeck modifications. It was done by Shawn Arber if I recall correctly and the workmanship was of a very high standard.

This is a movie about Eric Tabarly / Alain Colas crossed stories (in french unfortunately) , but in which there are some historical videos :
- 8:08 to 8:42 : launch of Pen Duick IV in May 1968 (in the same basin as recently Gitana 17 and Banque Pop 9)
- 9:23 to 9:40 : Pen Duick IV first trials in May 1968 , overspeeding Pen Duick III (few months before the winner of the 1967 Sydney Hobart)
- 23:45 to 23:58 : Pen Duick IV, renamed Manureva by his new owner Alain Colas, full speed arrival in Sydney bay (in 1973).
- 29:15 to 30:00 : Eric Tabarly full flying on a scale model in 1975, built with a Tornado hull, two small amas and two foils. What becomes later (in 1979) the Paul Ricard with which he broke the Charlie Barr North Atlantic record (there is a famous movie on that crossing, filmed by Dominique Pipat who was on board, but I have not yet found it )

Not the same boat - the video cat has no forebeam and has a bridgdeck of sorts. The Tennant is a 3 beamed boat with no bridgdeck. Malcolm's foredecks would never have had the lip on the inside - he loved arcs and the foredecks were usually cambered heavily. Good for power reaching.

We have a Bladerunner on the lake here (sistership to Afterburner) sailed on her quite a bit. Used to bend and break small things often - lots of power. She doesn't sail much now but is still in good nick. The owners are more into bushwalking than sailing now.

cheers

Phil

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Is the Tennant Blade Runner "Matchless" you speak of still around....? I am considering this boat in my current search... Not sure how to send a PM here...?

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